Hong Kong is very results-oriented and no more so than when it comes to early childhood education. Many parents go to great lengths to get their child into just the right school, even if it means enrolling their preschoolers in something like harp lessons to pad a primary school admissions application.

Adverts for infant formula, baby food and feeding utensils will come under a new set of government guidelines next year to curb exaggerated and misleading claims.

Although the guidelines will not be legally binding on suppliers, all public hospitals will boycott the products of sellers who defy them, a source close to the working group drafting the guidelines said.

Like many children, Kathy Wong Kin-Ho dreamed of finding a gleaming, new bicycle under the Christmas tree. So when a red two-wheeler made its glorious appearance - a joint Christmas and Lunar New Year present - her joy knew no bounds.

The seeds for founding a kindergarten were sown as early as 1995 when Betty Ho had her first child, Christopher. 'When I found out I was pregnant, I decided to quit my job, and became a 'full-time' mother. I started taking courses on early education, including right-brain training and prenatal education,' Ho recalls.

Parents today feel life is filled with potential risks for their children. So they change tables that the kids may roll off, fix door hinges and electric plugs they might stick fingers into, and worry about bullies who might make life a misery for them at school.

Authorities in the Gansu city of Qingyang have vowed to put funds into school buses instead of new government cars, in response to the death of 19 kindergarten pupils in a bus crash there on Wednesday.

A two-year-old sits at the wheel of a BMW as his mum proudly films him driving along the streets of Hong Kong on his father's knee. Another dad threatens to jump from a Wan Chai footbridge after his son's application to an elite English-language school is rejected.

When your teenager asks if she can go for an evening out with her friends, how do you respond? Even when parents say they will think about it, the response from the child may be: 'You never say yes to anything!'